About

ITT Technical Institute-DeSoto

ITT Tech Canton, Michigan campus

ITT Technical Institute (often shortened to ITT Tech or ITTTI), is a for-profit technical institute with over 130 campuses in 38 states of the United States. ITT Tech is owned and operated by ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE: ESI), a publicly traded company headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.

Students and employees have written critically about the school's high tuition and low academic standards. ITT Technical Institute charges among the highest tuition in the industry. It also has the industry's highest rate of loans that go into default within two years of attendance. In 2014, the tuition for attending an ITT Tech campus ranged from $45,000 to $85,000. According to ITT Tech literature, credits earned at ITT Tech are unlikely to transfer to other colleges.

On February 26, 2014, the CFPB sued ITT alleging they used high-pressure tactics to coerce students into high-interest private loans that were likely to end in default. ESI is also being investigated by at least a dozen state Attorneys General.

Company history

ITT Tech was founded in 1946 as Educational Services, Inc. and has been headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, since 1969. From 1965 until its IPO in 1994, ITT Tech was a wholly owned subsidiary of ITT Corporation (as "ITT/ESI"). By 1999, ITT Corp. (which had merged with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide the year before) divested itself completely of ITT Tech's shares but the schools still use the "ITT" name under license. It operates over 130 ITT Technical Institutes across the US, which primarily provide career-focused degree programs to approximately 60,000 students.

Academic services

ITT Tech offers AAS, bachelor's BAS, and master's (business-only, online) degrees. ITT Tech is nationally accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools. It may be impossible to transfer credits from ITT to a traditional university; per the ITT Web site, "it is unlikely that any credits earned at an ITT Technical Institute will be transferable to or accepted by any institution other than an ITT Technical Institute." ITT's brick-and-mortar offerings include more than 130 locations in 35 states.